A blog about video games and not much else. Updates at intervals of time.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Some Top Songs from Games I’ve Never Played

What I’m actually doing
with my free time and what I post about on the blog, even when I’m playing
plenty of games, is not necessarily always related. A lot of games I play
aren’t worth posting about on the blog, not because they’re bad but just
because I don’t have much to say about them. Alternatively, I might have things
to say about something but I was busy at the time while it still held my
interest, or I have so much I could say that the task seems daunting, or
perhaps I simply don’t have a ton of free time and/or manage it poorly. The
point is, this blog tends to run on a VG Cats rate of updating of
whenever the hell I feel like it, and a similar content system of whatever the
hell I feel like writing about.

This is how, despite
having tons of games I could be talking about, I ended up formulating another
list article on oddly specific game music. I was downloading a video game track
from a game I’d never actually played the other day, and whilst listening
considered that this was actually something I did fairly often. I view a lot of
stuff on the internet about video games, and thus find out a lot about games
that I’ve never personally played. Sometimes games have particular note made of
their soundtracks, of these a smaller portion I will actually one day look up
on YouTube, and of these an even smaller portion I will choose to download for
re-listening later, despite never having played the game in question.

Spoiler Alert:
Sometimes there’s a good reason for that.

These are those proud
(comparatively) few. These are the games that had such good music, whether a
single song or a troupe of tracks, that I enjoyed them enough to keep for later
despite no attachment whatsoever to the source material. As per usual, I make a
point to note that these are only some
top entries in this category that I in particular have noted. If you know of
other good songs from games you haven’t played, generally obscure games or hell
good game songs in general feel free to mention in the comments. It never hurts
to know about more awesome video game songs.

14. TMNT 4 Turtles in Time – Sewer Surfin’

Perhaps because I was a
bit young to be involved in the series at its hype height, but I was never
really that interested in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I had a similar
relation to the Super Nintendo, for though it was born the year before me by
the time I was into games the Nintendo 64 was already underway. Therefore it
shouldn’t be surprising that I never played Turtles in Time, a generally acclaimed beat-em-up game for the
aforementioned console. I was vaguely aware of its existence of course, as with
many games, but I wasn’t really aware of this particular tune until it got a
‘with lyrics’ treatment from YouTuber Brentalfloss. (Note: It’s not
really worth calling mature content, but that video contains, among other
things, uh…many descriptions of
feces. So that’s a thing.) This prompted me to look up the song in question,
which is below.

The first thing I thought
of to describe this song was ‘90s as hell’, but then I second guessed myself.
The sound fonts may be, but the overall feel of the song might be more 80s and
I have no idea how to tell the difference because I’m a gamer, not a
feel-of-decades-as-viewed-through-the-general-lens-of-popular-culture-er. Whatever
particular decade you feel most brings to mind the imagery of someone in a
backwards baseball cap and bright neon clothes shredding a guitar as they surf
through a virtual reality internet, as they camera careens in and out as they
scream either “WHOOOOOA” or “DUUUUUUDE”. This song evokes the general type of
temperament that could be described as “rad” or even, dare I say it,
“bodacious”. It’s a bit silly but it’s also fun and high energy and I rather
like it.

13. Mario Paint – Gnat Attack 2

And then from what is in
many ways the opposite side of the spectrum, we have a song from Mario Paint. Mario Paint, in addition
to also being on one of those Super Nintendo consoles I lacked ownership of,
didn’t seem like a particularly stimulating game. It seemed basically to be MS
Paint for the SNES, with a decent music composer and a mini-game about swatting
bugs thrown in. The aforesaid mini-game did appear to have some decent music
though. I can’t remember when or where I initially heard it, but it’s shown
below.

The song isn’t
particularly complicated or special in any way. However, it has a nice beat to
it, with a somewhat different sound than I’m used to. It’s also a lot more
mellow than most video game songs, which makes for a nice change of pace.

12. Saints Row 4 – Meet the President (Dubstep Gun Song)

One of the few more
recent songs on this list, the game in question has yet to even come out. Not
only that, but I haven’t even played any of its predecessors, though I’ve been
meaning to and I’ve seen others do so. Despite not playing any Saints Row games personally however,
I’ve generally enjoyed hearing of the crazy things the series tends to allow.
Recently I heard that the new game would feature a Dubstep Gun, which fires
multicolored lights to a dubstep beat that forces people to dance among other
shenanigans. Looking it up I found I kind of liked the music that went with it,
even though I’m normally not a huge fan of dubstep. So I looked up the song on
its own, and the full version turned out even better.

The dramatic, orchestral
sounding strings and choir go surprisingly well with the dubstep, and I quite
like the end result. The dubstep loop alone was good enough for me to like it,
but when combined with the chanting and strings it creates an excellent sound
that, overused though the term is, I suppose I would describe with some synonym
of ‘Epic’.

11. Sonic 2006 – Crisis City

I have a feeling I won’t
need to explain to a lot of people why I haven’t played this one. Sonic The Hedgehog was a game released
in 2006 for Xbox 360 and PS3 that due to its similar name to the original is
usually colloquially called Sonic 2006. The game was released prematurely and
is generally regarded as the absolute nadir of the entire series; emblematic of
the deteriorating quality that occurred following the blue blurs somewhat
ungraceful transition into the third dimension. I was actually going to buy the
game myself to play it for a laugh and see just how bad it really was. However,
the popular YouTube channel Game Grumps saved me the trouble by vowing to beat
it and showing me over 100 episodes of a game that is every bit as bad as I expected. (Though sadly, it may be a while before said series is
finally finished as one of the previous co-hosts was recently replaced as he
left to pursue his own videos). The point is it’s a bad game. But if there’s
one thing this entry proves, it’s that even bad Sonic games tend to have some
good songs.

Crisis City was actually
a level that was picked for Sonic Generations, the recent Sonic title that
featured remade levels from many of his previous games. This being the case, I
actually heard the two Generationsversions of this
song first. But when I went back to give the original a listen, I found it was actually
still pretty good. The particular video I linked is a compilation of all the
different segments of the song throughout the city. I think the segment
starting at about 1:45 is particularly good, along with the climax at about
4:35, but none of it is bad. Though the melodramatic tone of games like Sonic
2006 may have ultimately been a mistake, I definitely think the combination of
orchestral strings, guitar and electronic sounds that many of the more recent
titles have been using sounds great. But this is an article about games I
haven’t played, so let’s quickly move on before I have an excuse to link Rooftop Run again.

…damn it.

10. Solstice – Title Theme

Enough with games from
this decade, let’s get back to obscure games released before I was born on
consoles I never owned. Guess that pretty much encapsulates why I haven’t
played this one, huh? Though I’m no expert, Solstice seems obscure even for those who grew up in its era. Years
back when I heard this song on an article about video game music the author
said as much himself. For all I know, the game was some generic fantasy affair,
as this seems to be what the title screen portends. And the title song seems to
fit this stereotype as well, but there’s a surprise waiting several seconds in…

…and that surprise is
some kickass music. Apparently the music for Solstice was done by Tim Follin, a
prolific old-school game composer who is better known for some other soundtracks. That thing I just did
there? That’s called foreshadowing, or at least it would be had I not just
spoiled it. Back to the song, it’s just generally awesome. I love the initial
fake-out where it sounds like some standard, low-key fantasy fare, and then
sucker punches you with loud, wildly oscillating chiptune goodness. I know
nothing at all about the game and have no desire to, but props to this
excellent piece of music.

9. Ninja Warriors – Daddy Mulk

Ninja Warriors is a game that has may have one or more processes
which, at some point over the course of their execution, may involve Ninjas. I
can also deduce that these Ninjas may or may not be in the midst of performing
some manner of Warrior-ing or Warrior-like activities. This is more or less the
extent of what I know about the game. But it has a song in it for which it is
fairly well known, and when someone on the internet mentioned it I was reminded
of its existence and that was the initial inspiration for this article.

If you're wondering why this one isn't embedded, it's because I can't get the YouTube integration to find any of the non-cover versions of the song, despite them clearly existing. It's probably some stupid copyright issue. Sigh.

The strangely titled
Daddy Mulk is particularly impressive when you realize it was from 1987. The
song spans about 4 minutes of unique music, featuring two solos along the way
(you can tell they’re solos because they end with applause/cheering
sounds). Apart from being somewhat ahead
of its time, it’s also just plain good music. Pretty much all of the various
grooves it works through are well-crafted and memorable, and the whole thing
offers a kind of sound that’s fairly unique and stands out from other tunes of
the era. Speaking of, how about that solo starting around 3:15? You have never
before, nor will you ever again, hear a synth sitar solo so seriously,
sickeningly sweet.

8. Sonic Generations 3DS – Big Arm

Golly gee, can you tell I
like Sonic soundtracks yet? I would have had more on this list, but I’ve
actually played most of the games. In this case I may have played Sonic Generations, but the 3DS version,
which I have not touched, has different stages and songs. Just like Sonic
Generations it has plenty of excellent music, but one entry in particular
stands out. The final boss of Sonic 3 had some great music, and the remix of it
in Generations 3DS, as far as I’m concerned, goes from great to amazing.

It’s high-energy,
high-octane and a delightful assortment of other high-related descriptors. As
much as I like the original I find this one pretty much superior in every way.
If it weren’t for the fact that it’s a remix of music from a game I have played (not to mention it’s on an
alternate version of another game I’ve played), then it probably would have
gotten higher on the list. As it stands, as great as it is it’ll have to settle
for being merely absolutely awesome.

7. Lords of Thunder – Bosque Stage

Now I know I called the
some previous entries kickass, and I stand by that claim. However, I can
understand how not everyone may find the same amount of kickassery
(alternatively known as kickassitude levels) in chiptunes or old NES tunes. On
a side note, you’re probably on completely the wrong blog if that’s the case,
but whatever. What I’m getting at is I think we all can agree that this next entry holds an extremely high quotient
of kickassination. So what medium could bring such righteous rock down to us?
Is it a musical Guitar Hero style game? No. Is it high-fidelity, grim war title
showing the gritty battlefield drenched in every shade of grey and brown? No.
Then what could possibly bring such exceedingly, soul-shreddingly sick
ass-kicking? Well I’ll tell you, because that’s the point of this entry:

It’s a side scrolling
shooter for the TurboDuo.

I have no idea what
compelled Lords of Thunder to rock
as hard as it did. I didn’t even know the TurboDuo was capable of this quality of sound before
I heard the game. Yet not only is the sound quality quite good, but it’s also excessively metal. When Mario puts on
the metal cap, he’s really just putting on a hat with Lords of Thunder playing
from internal headphones. After you listen to this song, you should stay away
from magnets for a while. It contains enough of your daily value of Iron to
morph your fists into god damn sword blades*. The game seems to be a fairly
standard shoot-em-up, but the soundtrack is another story (and yes, it all rocks this hard).

Say that one day you die
in battle against vicious Vikings, as I’m sure is a common fate of those who
spend their free time reading a random individual’s video game blog. Say a
Valkyrie descends from the heavens and deems you worthy of following her to
Valhalla. Say you’ll rise in a flaming chariot adorned with skulls and pulled
by both a dragon and a Pegasus. If
the chariot happens to have a sound system, and the Valkyrie asks you what you
want to listen to on the way up, you’ll know what to do. You’ll tell her to pop
in a copy of the Lords of Thunder soundtrack, and she will nod at you in silent
approval, your hidden test passed with flying colors.

*The author of this piece wishes to convey that he may or may not be a
licensed Mineralologist.

6. Sanxion – Loader Tune

If you’re wondering what
the hell a Sanxion is at the moment,
you are not alone in these musings. Granted, I know that Sanxion is the name of
a 1986 game for the Commodore 64, but I have no idea what the hell the name is
supposed to mean. Probably nothing,
given the way game names commonly worked back then. It was a shoot-em-up that,
as far as I can tell, was “pretty okay”. What seems to have had more staying
power than the game itself is its music. Now the quality is befitting of a game
from 1986, and it might not be everyone’s cup of tea. Having prefaced that…

I freaking love this song. I find it seriously
impressive that this came out in 1986, the same year as The Legend of Zelda and
just one year after Super Mario Bros. And unlike the above Ninja Warriors, it
wasn’t on an arcade cabinet. It took the not-that-bad
–but-admittedly-a-bit-ass-sounding sound chip of a Commodore 64 and made it do
wonderful things. It’s a real shame the song was limited to a loading screen on
an average, archaic shoot-em-up (yeah, the C64 had to spend several minutes
loading a game before starting, which was when this played).

And beyond being good for
its era, I personally just like it period. I find the melodies it busts out intensely
memorable. I love the sound it has to it, especially the heavily distorted
variety that it first shows off at around 1:15. Perhaps to some of you may find
that this sounds like screechy low-tech noise as opposed to something far more
awesome. However, some of you aren’t writing this article, I am. So unless you
can show me, say, an epic tune of wonder you composed for the ZX Spectrum, then
you can go screw yourselves.

5. Xenogears – Balto

Once upon a time, a
teenage boy was listening to a podcast about video games. At the end of that
podcast he heard a song that he actually found fairly beautiful. But then he
forgot about it, and it would be years before he actually heard that song
again. The second time though, he remembered to keep it. That boy, in case it
wasn’t obvious at this point, would eventually be…Abraham Lincoln.

…no wait, I tell a lie,
it’s me.

Xenogears is apparently a fairly popular RPG, and it remains on my
list of games to play, in part purely because of this music. I’ve never learned
more about the game, and actually haven’t heard much else of its soundtrack
either, something I should remedy even sooner. All I know is it’s a PS1 era RPG
with music by Yasunori Mitsuda, a composer who has done a number of great video
game tracks but is probably best known for his work on Chrono Trigger. That, and there’s a song in it called Balto
(presumably named after a character) that I quite like.

It stands in contrast to
a lot of the other stuff on this list. The song as a whole has a very Celtic
sort of feel to it. The first half of the song is a slow piece with wind
instruments and acoustic guitar, which then picks up in the second half and
changes into more of a lively jig.. There is very little electronic in the
song, apart from some cool effects in the background that bring to mind a
particularly pleasant sounding version of the effect you usually hear to
accompany time reversing. Beyond it being a nice change of pace from what I
usually listen to, I like the first part because it’s relaxing, the second part
because it’s energetic, and the whole piece because it’s just generally
beautiful and lovely.

4. Ducktales (NES) – The Moon

Before I get onto this
entry, let me say that I’ve had a tough time choosing which entries appear
higher on the list at this point. That this entry only makes fourth is a real
testament to the amount of material I really like on display. Anyway, it’s no
secret to people who know about old game music that Ducktales for the NES, in addition to being a surprisingly good
game, had an excellent soundtrack. The whole soundtrack (which is admittedly less
than 10 songs) is pretty good, but I agree with the opinion of many that the
best song the game has to offer is The Moon.

Like most great old-school
game music, the song is relatively simple. But that simplicity belies a
wonderfully solid melody that’s both catchy, triumphant, and I might even say a
bit beautiful. That a short song for a single stage in a game about Scrooge
McDuck could be so eloquent is startling. I would’ve played the game by now,
but obviously it was a bit before my time (though they recently announced a
remake of the game is coming). Of course, as I said earlier you should really
just check out the entire soundtrack, as it’s full of catchy tunes
and will honestly only take like 10 minutes of your time. But if I had to pick
one that was a shining example of NES music, The Moon is the clear winner as
far as I’m concerned.

3. Katamari Damacy – Katamari on the Rocks

If you’ve never heard of
a Katamari game before, you’re in
for an…interesting experience (also, what rock have you been living under all
this time and why hasn’t it been rolled into a giant ball yet?) The Katamari
series of games premise is thus: The King of All Cosmos accidentally destroyed
a planet (I believe he was drunk, though it may change from game to game). You,
the prince, need to make a new one by rolling a bunch of shit into a big-ass
ball. And that’s it. You start out rolling together things like paperclips and
next thing you know you’re rolling whales and cities into the thing. The games
seem delightfully weird, but also possibly a bit insubstantial and for whatever
reason though I’ve always had some interest the opportunity has never arose for
me to play one of the games. As for the music, it all starts with this song…

I defy anyone of you to
not find that song at least a little bit catchy. Beyond catching the
sumptuously strange atmosphere of the series, it’s just plain catchy. If you
can’t remember enough to sing the main part to yourself later, you may need to
check with your doctor to make sure your ears haven’t been replaced with lead
bricks. There appear to be many variations of this base tune in this and other
Katamari games. In particular, I quite like predictably funky Katamari on the Funk and this ecstatically
cheery and upbeat synth Namco mix of Katamari on the Swing. (To
clarify that second one, Katamari on the Swing was a remix of the main Katamari
theme, and this was a remix of that
remix). But from what I can tell, Katamari on the Rocks is the most popular
(and possibly original…?) iteration of the memorable theme.

…na naaaa, na na na naa
na na naa, na nana nana nanaa naaaa…

2. Silver Surfer – Title…and others

Remember
when I made that incredibly subtle
bit of foreshadowing earlier in this article saying that another game composed
by Tim Follin would be showing up? Well I’m now bringing up that this is that
entry with an equal level of subtlety. The game in question this time is Silver
Surfer for the NES. Apart from being a game that was around like a decade
before I was interested in games, there’s another reason I don’t think I’ll
ever feel a desire to go back and play this one. That reason can be eloquently
summed up by just linking you the Angry Video Game Nerd review of
the game. (WARNING: This is definitely NSFW, with this particular review being
noted as the AVGN with the most uses of the F-word of all of them. No
seriously, he counted.) But despite the game being…that, the music…well, take a listen.

If
you thought that earlier entry on Solstice was crazy, well, now you know where
it came from. This title screen theme is filled with all sorts of crazy
arpeggios, slides from note to note, and generally sounds several times more
involved than anything you’d expect from an NES sound chip. But it’s not alone
in that regard. The entire soundtrack is frantic and funky in the best ways
possible. In fact, I’m not even going to just tell you to view the rest like in
other entries. There are only 4 real (30 seconds and up) songs in the game anyway.

Background Music 1 is
probably the fastest paced of the lot. It’s got a lot of ascending and
descending sounds, even more than the already plentiful amount in the other
tracks. Good stuff.

I was going to say
that Background Music 2 was my favorite, but then I realized that this is like
choosing which baby puppy I would most prefer to murder. Or to use a better
metaphor for this blog, which Legend of Zelda game I like the most. On a
slightly more on-topic note, despite all the crazy sounds going on my favorite
part may be that tinkling glass type sound that grooves into place at about
0:55.

And finally we have
the High Score music. It may be the shortest of the lot, but I’d say it’s also
by far the funkiest. It’s crazy that something this high quality was reserved
for a mere high score screen.

1. Ollie King – Just All of it, Okay?

Some of my favorite
soundtracks in gaming come from the games Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio
Future. The groovy tracks that accompany the stylized game about roller
skating/graffiti/blowing up helicopters are by a wide and varied group of
artists, but a large portion of the songs (most of my favorites at that) were
handled by a composer named Hideki Naganuma. Naganuma has a limited discography
beyond that, however. He composed the soundtrack to Sonic Rush, a soundtrack I
absolutely adored. But beyond that, the Jet Set Radio games, and some scattered
songs here and there, there’s only one other game he composed music for.

That game is called Ollie
King. So the obvious question is, why haven’t I played it?

Do the words
“Japanese-Only Arcade Machine” mean anything to you?

So yeah, there isn’t much
chance of me ever playing this game. And to be honest, though the game seems
fine I’m not too concerned about it. There’s only one thing I need out of this
game, and that’s its utterly fantastic
soundtrack. Seriously you guys, I’m running out of adjectives to describe how
awesome given samples of music are but this stuff is the real deal. It’s right
up there with Jet Set Radio in terms of quality as far as I’m concerned. It’s
only due to the comparatively low quantity on display (the soundtrack is only 8
songs) that I would hesitate to call it equal or above those games. Music is
always going to be subjective, and it’s possible that you might not like this
stuff as much as I do, or even at all. But me? Some of these tracks would rate
on a list of my favorite songs of all time.

…you know what, screw it.
We’re going through this entire 8-song soundtrack. This has now become All
Songs from a Game I’ve Never Played, because all songs from this game are top
songs. Let’s start with one of my favorites to give you an idea of what I’m
talking about…

Something Jazzy for
Your Mind is jazzy, funky, groovy, and similar assorted descriptors. The song
gives off an almost tropical feel to me, but less relaxing on the beach and
more grinding rails past palm trees at 50 miles per hour. The guitar that comes
in at about 1:10 is great, and I love the pause for acoustic at 2:15, which seems
oddly almost identical to Windmill Isle from Sonic Unleashed.

Brother Goes Away is a
funky tune that uses fairly distorted voice samples and has a pretty bitchin’
bevy of bass beats. Such things are to be expected in Naganuma songs, but
they’re especially true here. Great stuff.

Funk To The Top even
has funk in the tile, so you know what you’re getting into. The guitar is
particularly heavy in this one. I’d also like to say that if I could find a
higher quality version I would’ve linked it, but this appears to be the only
one on YouTube. “We gonna do a song that you’ve never heard before” indeed.

Boarder 70 seems to be
some weird pseudo-remix of Something Jazzy for Your Mind with much heavier
guitar and feel in general. Personally I like Something Jazzy better, and this
would actually be a candidate for my least favorite song in the soundtrack, but
that’s not saying much. On a side note, there’s only one video of this song on
YouTube, and it misspelled the title as “Boader”. Sheesh.

Let It Go would
probably be the other candidate for my least favorite song in the soundtrack,
though I still really like it. The
rap bits are the ones that occasionally fall a tad short for me, but I love the
sound the chorus parts are going for. I may be suffering from a critical funk
overload at this point.

The Concept of Love
(Concept of Passion Mix) is, as its name implies, a remix of Concept of Love,
which was the title song to Jet Set Radio Future. It seems to be going for a
more industrial sound, which I admit was an observation I stole from a YouTube
comment, but it’s true. I actually might like this version better than the
original, though the original is great too. The parts seem to be more separated
in this version, which can work in its favor as it gives them more exposure.
Among its new additions are added strings (both acoustic guitar and what are
probably violins) and piano, both of which I feel work pretty well. Before I embarrass
myself by getting too analytical without knowing what I’m talking about, let’s
just leave it at the fact that I like this music.

Too Fast is song that
feels true to its name. An unrelenting barrage of guitar riffs that is
comparatively light on the usual voice samples. Definitely not going for funky
in this one, it’s an adrenaline rush, pure and simple. A little repetitive I
suppose, but other than that great.

Finally we have
Teknopathic (Pop ‘n Disco 80s Mix), which is self-explanatory in multiple ways.
As much as I like the original Teknopathic from Jet Set Radio
Future, I think I like this version better. It’s less techno obviously, which
it exchanges for funk levels previously unfound by scientists. Deep below the
earth Naganuma unearthed funk deposits previously thought to be the stuff of legends
and old wives’ tales. At almost 6 minutes it’s the longest track here, and even
still I have trouble singling out a single portion of it. It just all works, and beautifully at that. The
slow strings, the fast strings, the groovy bass, the piano bits, the voice
samples, the guitar, the whole damn thing.

So there you have it. You
may think I’m uncultured swine musically speaking. I certainly realized midway
through this article that I have trouble describing the auditory phenomenon I
enjoy in an interesting way that doesn’t reveal how little I actually know
about music. But hopefully I’ve introduced some of you to some obscure songs
you’ve come to enjoy. Again, feel free to list others you like in the comments.
I’m always looking for more and hell, I think I’ve probably forgotten some that
would’ve worked for this article myself. You’re all entitled to your opinions
of course, and may hate all of these. I don’t take the slightest offense to
people with incorrect opinions like yours existing, so don’t worry, you
inferior being you.